Brits have been told to be on alert as the remnants of Hurricane Oscar are set to sweep across the country, the Met Office has announced. The hurricane, which claimed at least six lives in Cuba and left over 1,000 homes damaged, predominantly in Guantánamo province, has since weakened but is expected to make its presence felt in the UK this weekend.
Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern, in a recent YouTube forecast video, warned: “It’s later Saturday and into Sunday when the weather system contains the remnants of tropical storm Oscar. This is the remnants of the tropical storm, not at all a tropical storm itself of course at this stage but it’s tropical origins mean that it’ll only adds to the uncertainty through the weekend in terms of the speeds of weather systems as they move through.”
He added, “It also contains some additional moisture, so we could end up with quite a wet spell across western and more especially northwestern parts of the UK, so this weekend’s likely to be very mixed.”
The most severe downpours are expected on Sunday, targeting areas such as Cumbria and Lancashire, where forecasters predict over 13mm of rain could deluge the coast within mere hours. Western Scotland, particularly Ayrshire, is also bracing for a soggy Saturday night.
Mr McGivern warned: “We’re going to see weather systems move in, not just one but a few from the west and those weather systems are likely to mount up the rainfall across western and northwestern parts of the country, especially over hills and so that’s definitely something we’ll be keeping an eye on here at the Met Office.”
Although no weather warnings for rain are currently in place, the situation is being closely monitored by the experts, reports the Mirror. This alert follows intense rainfall, particularly in Scotland, on Thursday.
The Outer Hebrides were hammered with more than 20mm according to the Met Office records. In contrast, southern areas of the UK experienced much drier conditions.
The Met Office has claimed that rain is the predominant cause of disruption, preventing Brits from getting to work punctually. This stems from research conducted after a wet October, severely affected by Storm Ashley which led to the cancellation of flights and trains the previous weekend.